About Me

THE UKs LARGEST INDEPENDENT COMICS PUBLISHER
Between 1984-1994 I worked freelance as a writer/artist/editor/agent in comics as well as comics journalism for MU Press,Blue Comet Press,Fantagraphic Books,Eros Comics,Dorne,Fleetway,IPC and others in the United States,UK and Europe. During this period I also produced large numbers of single panel gag cartoons for agencies in Germany such as Boiselle-Lohmann and Baaske Agency –these going to magazines and publications around Europe. I also worked as a freelance editor in comics and publications ranging from wildlife,astronomy and science fiction magazines.
From 1984 to present I've been self publishing comics as well as publications on a wide variety of subjects under the Black Tower banner.
I have also produced packages of work for companies in India,Hong Kong and China. I have also been working as an industry advisor for smaller companies in countries such as India,Canada,Singapore,China,Europe and the US. hoopercomicsuk@yahoo.com

The Red Paper: Canids Up-dated
2011 edition includes section on sarcoptic mange in foxes and treatment
plus a list of wildlife sanctuaries and rescue centres in the UK.

By the 1700s the British fox was on the verge of extinction and about to
follow the bear and wolf having been hunted for sport for centuries.
The answer was to import thousands of foxes per year for sport. But
foxes kept dying out so jackals were tried. Some were caught, some
escaped.

Even wolves and coyote were released for hunting.
The summation of over 30 years research reveals the damnable lie of
"pest control" hunting but also reveals the cruelty the animals were
subject to and how private menageries as well as travelling shows helped
provide the British and Irish countryside with some incredible events.

The Girt Dog of Ennerdale is also dealt with in detail.

With the debate on the reinstatement of fox-hunting getting hotter as we draw closer to the UK general election and the Conservative Party promise to bring it back do not be misinformed! This book is the culmination of work begun in 1977 and draws on books published by fox hunting experts and giving an insight into their practices before it all really did go "underground". There are also -all fully referenced- accounts of the importing of foxes by the thousands into the UK specifically to "keep the sport alive".

But this was not written or intended as an anti-fox hunt book. The data is presented as found.

There is also a look at the history of wolves in Europe and how their reputation for being ferocious predators came about -particularly in France during severe Winters in the 19th century.

Coyotes, arctic foxes and jackals, amongst others, lived and bred in the UK and in some areas became so common that there were bounties for jackal heads. Menageries escapees is the usual solution to "how they got here" but the main blame is, again, mainly with local fox hunt groups even a wolf was due to be released in Devon for a hunt until protest from local farmers and live-stock owners stopped it. And Coyotes living in Epping Forest until the 1940s....

And there is more. The "Girt Dog of Ennerdale" has been identified by, amongst others, Cryptozoologists as a tiger or a Thylacine. The actual TRUTH is revealed in this work by doing something others have not: going directly to the source!

With one veteran naturalist calling this work "explosive" can you resist buying a copy?

In His Cups is a complete
collection of Phil Elliott’s comic strip, Tales from Gimbley featuring
the eponymous everyman, Dave Gimbley. Gimbley recounts tales from his
youth including his one-night stand with the Mona Lisa; a fight to the
death with a sumo wrestler; deconstructing a de stijl chair; being an
integral member of a Performance Art piece; meeting the Holy Man and
many other surreal, humorous and often poignant adventures.

Eek. I told someone that I reviewed this book back around Christmas. I did. It was quite a longish review. Person gets back to me:"I can't find it -are you sure?" Well, of course I was sure because I had to make a couple corrections and post the link to my Yahoo groups....I've searched. It is gone. As are a couple other reviews. I love Blogger at times!

Elliott, of course, drew the excellent Second City for Harrier Comics back in the 1980s.

I cannot remember what I wrote, of course, I'm lucky if I remember to change my pants. This book collects over 30 years worth of strip-work and it's interesting to see the change in styles and mediums Elliott used.

Believe me, you want to try to track down and buy the publications featuring the strip -give up. Go look for the Golden Fleece. That or buy this book which is easier and will give you a fun read!

Kendal, 3rd March, 2015: Following up on the popularity of several Continental guests in 2014, the Lakes International Comic Art Festival is pleased to announce the appearance of its first four French artists coming to this year’s weekend-long event in Kendal.

Winshluss (Vincent Paronnaud) is the successful author of Pinocchio and the recently-released In God We Trust, published in the UK by Knockabout Comics, which won the Fauve d'Or prize in Angouleme in 2009. He also works as an award-winning director in France with such films as Persepolis (2007 Cannes Jury Prize) and Chicken with Plums.

Academic, writer, thinker and biographer of Herge and Derrida Benoît Peeters is the author of the experimental Obscure Cities series (Les Cités Obscures) and Tokyo is My Garden (Tôkyo est Mon Jardin). Since 2003, he has been head of Bang! magazine with Fabrice Bousteau.

Published in the UK by Breakdown Press, Antoine Cossé grew up in the Paris suburbs but, aged 20, moved to London to study at Camberwell College of Art. Mutiny Bay – also published in French – is his most ambitious and substantial work to date.

Top French artist Boulet – recently announced as a new
patron for the Festival along with Stephen L. Holland, owner of the Page
45 comic ship in Nottingham – has over 25 graphic novels in print in
his native country including the Raghnarok and Chez La boîte à bulles
series for Glenat. Two books in the Donjon (Dungeon) series, created
with Lewis Trondheim and Joann Sfar, are available in English.

These four French creators, each at varying stages in their careers, are
just some of the international guests heading to Kendal this year
alongside British creators such as Bryan Talbot and Sean Phillips, and the award-winning Canadian comic book writer, artist, cartoonist and animator Darwyn Cooke.

This year’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival (16th - 18th October
2015) will feature a huge number of international comic creators -
possibly more than any other comics event of its kind in the UK - and
also include numerous programming strands. These include appearances
by top shoujo manga creators from Japan, Canadian creators,
British comic writers and artists, along with the return of many popular
events including the children-friendly Family Zone and eye-catching
Windows Trail involving over 50 local businesses keen to support the
Festival’s aim to be the “Angouleme of the North”.

In addition, the Festival is supporting a number of major
commissioning initiatives, working in partnership with organisations
across the UK and beyond, more on which will be announced shortly.

Interesting that after posting "A Request" to all my blogs and Yahoo groups and where ever else I could find that I received....zero responses.

I think 'comic fans' ought to hang their heads in shame. Grab and download art from CBO or use one of its postings but a simple request...nothing. Even "I'll forward it to groups I'm on" would have been something.

There is no comic 'community' or fan base anymore. The internet has bred a generation of "grab-it-it's-free"

Very annoying is the fact that I KNOW people with old UK comic collections and references read CBO.

Sunday, 1 March 2015

In my ongoing quest to run into a brick wall as many times as
possible...no. That's not right. In my ongoing quest to find out more
about obscure UK comic creators of the past I have needed my nose and
teeth fixed several times.....oh, there, see -THAT is where I should
have typed "running into brick walls" but the moment has gone!

Anyway, being far more serious: I have looked and dug around the
internet and written letters far and wide but still have not been able
to find photographs of most of these creators.

Gerald
Swan and Denis M. Reader you might think had photos taken by someone
-apparently, Denis Gifford thought it was "a bit impolite" to ask if he
might take a photograph (oh, Denis!!) and Jock McCail and his brother,
William A. Ward Harry Banger -you'd think family at least might have a
page or online images. Nothing.

Now
I know that there are quite a few knowledgeable comickers out there
with all sorts of journals, books, etc. So, my big request is this: if
you have any photographs of these people or others who worked for Swan
-even if only "cartoon portraits" could you please get in touch or pass
the word around?

Captain Zorikh's Costume Contest will
once again bring the most amazing costumers and Cosplayers together! And at
7pm, the Captain will be hosting the NY SciFi & Fantasy Fire & Ice
Official After-Party at Quinn's NYC, 356 West 44th St!

An image of Ceres taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows that
the brightest spot on the dwarf planet has a dimmer companion.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

Mike Balls, AV Chronicle 26 February, 2015

In light of the reported dark green skies over Canada and Russia recently and the growing conspiracy theories not to mention the increasing number of UFO sightings and mystery drones spotted over France since last October this latest news has fuelled more speculation.

Professor Peter Sidebotham from the European Space Agency Deep Space Project told a recent news conference in Lucerne: "There can be little doubt that there have been recent nuclear explosions on the surface of Mars" and at a hurried meeting of the Deep Space Project, Sidebotham told a reporter for CNN: "I think we have visitors to our solar system and they are not friendly" (CNN News 23 January, 2015.

There is now a statement from Professor John Chance of the Lucerne Deep Observation Agency that similar explosions have been seen on other planetary bodies in the solar system including Ceres and that these explosions are clearly seen on NASA photographs.

Both NASA and the European Space Agency have denied observing large artificial objects moving near to Mars. Asked about the claims of the two scientists both agencies released replies worded exactly the same: "We cannot comment at this moment."

__________________________________ and ____________________________________

By Mike Wall | SPACE.com

SPACE.com/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
- Two photos of the dwarf planet Ceres taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft
on Feb. 12, 2015, from a distance of about 52,000 miles (83,000
kilometers).

NASA's
Dawn spacecraft will have plenty of mysteries to investigate when it
begins orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres next month, as the probe's latest
photos attest.

Dawn's most recent images of Ceres,
taken Feb. 12 at a distance of 52,000 miles (83,000 kilometers) away,
show an abundance of craters on the dwarf planet, as well as numerous
bright spots that have scientists baffled.

"As we slowly approach the stage,
our eyes transfixed on Ceres and her planetary dance, we find she has
beguiled us but left us none the wiser," Dawn principal investigator
Chris Russell of UCLA said in a statement. "We expected to be surprised; we did not expect to be this puzzled."

The new photos, which have a resolution of 4.9 miles (7.8 km) per
pixel, are the sharpest ever taken of Ceres, NASA officials said.

"We can confirm that it is something on Ceres that reflects more
sunlight, but what that is remains a mystery," Dawn mission director and
chief engineer Marc Rayman, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California, told Space.com via email at the time

Dawn could clear up the mystery soon. The probe is scheduled to enter
orbit around the 590-mile-wide (950 km) Ceres, the largest body in the
main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, on the night of March 5.
Dawn will start studying Ceres in earnest six weeks after that; the
probe is scheduled to work its way down to its first science orbit on
April 23.

The $466 million Dawn mission launched in September 2007 to study the
asteroid belt's two biggest denizens — the protoplanet Vesta, which is
330 miles (530 km) wide, and Ceres. Dawn orbited Vesta from July 2011
through September 2012, when it departed for Ceres.

Dawn's observations of these two planetary building blocks should
help scientists better understand the solar system's early days, NASA
officials said.

Dawn is scheduled to study Ceres from a variety of orbits through June 2016, when the probe's mission will come to an end.

For information on guests, cosplay and the venue visit the Festival web site at: http://www.thecomicfestival.com/home ...

Krakos -Sands Of Terror! by Terry Hooper-Scharf

Created by William A. Ward for Swan Comics in the 1940s,Krakos was one of Ward’s supernatural anti-hero types. Used,with Swan’s permission,in Black Tower Adventure strips in the 1980s/1990s,this is the character’s first solo outing. But will Krakos fulfill the Goddess Isis’ dream and become the new pharoah of a New Egyptian Kingdom that will encompass all of the Middle East? Did anyone actually ask Krakos? The book contains information on Ward and his work plus sample pages rescued after 60 years of neglect!. A4 comic Album. B&W. Price: £8.00 Ships in 3–5 business days